The broad aim of the project is to gain information about the molecular mechanism by which chemical carcinogens convert normal cells into tumor cells. The project studies the interaction of carcinogenic aminoazo dyes with cytoplasmic proteins and the relation of these proteins or their function to cortisol binding cytoplasmic proteins. The second goal of the project is to study the mechanism of the transfer of carcinogenic aminoazo dyes into the cell nucleus and their interaction with chromatin, with the aim of indentifying the target molecules in the cell nucleus the function of which is impaired or modified by the interaction with the carcinogens. Changes induced by the carcinogenic aminoazo dyes in structure, metabolism and function of nuclear proteins in the liver cells are correlated with changes in the processing of messenger RNA and in its transport into the cytoplasm. The possible function of cytoplasmic proteins binding aminoazo dyes in the transfer of messenger RNA from the cell nucleus to the polysomes is also studied.